With the arrival of new laws and rules prohibiting the use of live bait fish in many of our waters, this lure was designed to use dead bait fish or dew worms as an integral part of a fishing lure that would simulate the swimming action of a live bait fish when trolled through the water, enticing game fish to attack.
As most all avid fishermen know, the art of attracting and catching fish is embroidered with enumerable imaginative gadgets and strategies.
There is an endless proliferation of lures and rigs of many forms, employing many techniques. However, it is well-established fact that many varieties of fish are predators and feed on bait fish. Thus, by imitating the actions of the bait fish we can attract the predator.
Since live bait fish fishing has been virtually banned, and methods available to rig dead natural bait fish or dew worms to simulate real live bait fish motion when trolled left us wanting, this design and method of natural bait attachment was invented.
The present invention provides a very carefully designed trolling rig, and a method of combining same with natural bait in two different models hereby called the Trailer Model and the Pull Through Model. Each model can be produced in different sizes to accommodate the range of sizes of available bait fish. The present invention provides a cap made, preferably by molding, to resemble the head of a minnow that has a hollow cavity of a size and shape that will be compatible with the size and shape of the bait minnow specified. This conical cap, which is preferably molded or cast from plastic casting resin, is equipped with a metal foil or bill, counter weighted as required, a stabilizer rod (Trailer Model) or tube (Pull Through Model), and a metal rod with two eyelets on the Trailer Model all anchored within the head.
Also the device to lock the bait to the cap is a barbed L shaped device is attached to an eyelet anchored to the top of the lure. This L shaped device pivots down into the hard back of the bait and held in place by a barbed end.
All these elements combined have resulted in a simple to use, novel trolling rig for natural bait.
On the trailer model, a single wire is used to form an eyelet at the front end of the lure for connection so the forward leader, and an eyelet protruding out of the bottom of the lure, behind the bill, for connection to the hook leader, after being embedded within the molded head. The hook is attached to the free tail of the bait. On the Pull Through model, the solid pointed rod is replaced by a tube which has a bore, opened for the front of the lure to the back of the tube. The diameter of this bore is smaller than the eye of the hook specified for the model size. On this model the hook is attached to a leader, and this leader is threaded through the cavity of the bait and then threaded through the bore of the tube. When the bait is impaled onto the tube the leader is pulled until the eye of the hook is buttressed against the end of the tube and then the leader is attached to the line.
All models have eyes painted with luminous paint, so that the eyes will glow when the ensemble is trolled at depths when there is little light, to attract predator fish.
This combination of the bill to impart the life like minnow motion in the free tail of the bait, the locking device to hold the bait securely from the front half of the bait, leaving the tail free to wobble, the luminous eyes, the stabilizer rod or tube that impale the bait and help hold the bait in the cavity of the lure, and the two hook attaching arrangements have resulted in a simple to use novel rig that will simulate the action and smell of live minnows when trolled through the water. The ensemble is weighted and balanced for each size so that it remains underwater.